The Kiryat Arba council made a decision to close its pool ahead of the summer season in light of an order by the Supreme Court to offer at least two hours of mixed swimming every day. Two weeks ago, four residents of Kiryat Arba, a town of about 7,500 almost exclusively populated by religious residents, filed a petition with the Supreme Court demanding that the local pool offer hours for mixed swimming. The Supreme Court issued a similar order two years ago following an earlier petition by the same residents, who represent only three families. The pool obeyed the order by allocating hours for “family swim” but many residents responded by canceling their memberships, causing the pool to close due to financial constraints. Attorney Gershon Masika, who represents the Kiryat Arba council, spoke to Arutz Sheva about the absurdity of the Supreme Court ruling which according to the judges, is based on the reasoning that all public pools should offer both separate and mixed swimming hours because they cannot serve only one segment of the population. He said that he intends to file petitions forcing all the cities throughout Israel which fail to offer separate swimming hours to do so. Masika called out to the Israeli public to contact him if they live in a location near a pool that does not offer separate swimming, adding that there is already a demand in many cities and yishuvim for this and it applies to public beaches as well. Masika also mentioned the fact that the court does not intervene in Arab or Bedouin communities which offer only separate swimming in their public pools. (YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)

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